He rushed through the forest away from the road. He had heard people approaching, a lot of people.

Had the army arrived so soon? It had been half a day, barely. As he kept running tears ran down his face and he mourned the loss of his family.

Then he suddenly stood still. His arms being held behind him in an uncomfortable grasp and a hand over his mouth.

“Quiet boy! Don’t let them hear you,” an oddly familiar voice said. He turned around and stared into the black hollow eyes of Garof.

“Were you the fire, boy?” the man pushed his fingers on his mouth and kept whispering. “Don’t say anything, just listen. Saved our asses I’m telling you. I need to be on patrol and don’t have much time. We are evacuating to Reinsteel, if you were planning on going there, you need to change your plans. If anyone who has known you thus far ever finds you, they will have to make sure you get reported.

“The village heads made the townspeople swear. I wasn’t around when they did, scouting and such. They think you are alive but are trying to hush it up. I won’t report you, since you saved our lives, but I can’t see you ever again after today.

He pointed in a direction Kent had roughly been running at.

“If you follow the way you are running right now, you will end up in Farburg. You should be safe there for a bit. At least long enough to figure out what is going on and why we are invaded by the west. Backstabbing bastards!” he cursed the last sentence under his breath.

Garof let go of his arms and mouth and pushed him further away from the road.

“I’ll tell your mother and siblings that you are still alive when we get to Reinsteel. Take care,” Garof said before turning the other way and running off as well.

He just stood there dumbfounded until he heard a yell too close by.

Kent reorientated himself, quickly trying to digest the new information. He then realized that Garof hadn’t mentioned his father, uncle, or others.

Just an oversight, he almost begged mentally. I’m sure they will be fine.

He moved further through the dense shrubbery. His speed grew slower the further he left the vestiges of civilization behind.

*Ding – Notification pending*

Kent knew the contents of the notification before he opened it. He just had to make sure. It would be the sixteenth soldier, the one that was causing nightmare scenarios constantly.

He held himself for a second. Maybe it wasn’t ideal to be confronted with his previous actions so soon. The memory of the sounds he had heard when he left alone brought slight nausea over him.

But maybe, just maybe he had unlocked a trait. It was an unrealistic and unreasonable hope he knew, in the end, the temptation proved too strong. He needed something, a hope, something to guide him in this scenario.

If not, then maybe he had gained a quest reward. Something.

New Notification Log Entry:

You have murdered Teron, Human – Scout Level 41!

…

You have murdered Asran, Human – Scout Level 57!

You have murdered Darnage, Human – Warrior Level 48!

…

You have murdered Sasli, Human – Warrior Level 54!

Quest Update (Divergent):

Quest (Divergent) has been superseded by Quest (Invasion)!

Flee the village to avoid your execution.

You have been exiled and are no longer keyed to the Zone of Civilization.

New Primary Objective: Survive the assault of Swaiak Pakt

Secondary Objective: Gain a foothold after being exiled

Variable Rewards: Variable

Failure: Death and Variable

He stumbled. Only having glanced past the still present messages telling him that he had murdered fifteen humans. He had burned them while alive, even if they might have been sedated.

His stumble came to a sudden halt as vertigo overcame him again, stronger this time. Without looking at the names, all had been contained. Now, it was as though his crimes had become reality.

Unexpectedly he retched. It came suddenly, more as a reflex or a primal instinct. As though his very core punishing him for his transgressions against humanity. He had never wanted to be a murderer, and even with what Garof had said, affirming him in his belief of having saved dozens if not hundreds of villagers' lives, it was disgusting.

As his body still reflexively convulsed, he wondered, if returning to the village would have been a better call. They could have taken care of the small pack of soldiers. While no one in their village was exceedingly powerful, they had a few ex-combatants that skirted the one-hundreds in level. It should have been enough to decimate the offending party in an ambush without casualties – especially since the numbers he had seen hadn’t been too worrying. Mostly scouts and a couple of warriors wouldn’t have posed a thread for the combined might of any village.

So why were they stationed here in the first place? To prevent villagers from fleeing towards Reinsteel. Kent imagined it might have been a component. Maybe it was more complex than that, but it was definitely a part of the greater picture.

He had heard a mention of a remainder of the army. Which only lends credibility to his theory.

While this didn’t clear his conscious it made him accept his actions with only a bit of disgust.

Spitting the vestiges of his former meal from his mouth he got up.

He had to forge plans for his continued survival. But how he would act in the next couple of hours would be essential to those very plans.

Civilization would have to be his first and foremost goal. Reinsteel was no longer an option and depending on what the invading army would do even Farburg might not work as a safe haven for a long period of time. It would still be his first major goal after being exiled.

How to get there was another matter. Garof might have recommended running through the hills just straight forwards until he reached a road or street. That would be a deadly endeavor for an unclassed and traitless such as him. While very strong monsters were uncommon in the more civilized corner of Issar he had no chance against middling creatures in the low tens.

The only reasonable way forwards he could gleam was to follow the road, either move ahead or behind the refugees.

Behind would no doubt be safer regarding local monster populations, but the very opposite held true for human threats.

It all came down to what he judged to be the greatest threat.

It might have been the last few days that led him to his decision. Maybe it was haughtiness, idiocy, or straight up the unreasonableness of his circumstances.

It was his choice to move ahead of the fleeing refugees.

Outpacing a group of several other traitless children and elderly should be doable, right?

With confident steps he increased his speed to a low jog, trying to keep parallel to the road. Which was difficult as he had never traversed the road in the first place. Worsened by his continued efforts of keeping the noise he made low, the often-dense shrubbery, and his continuous effort to keep his senses heightened and observant at all times.

When he heard voices brought to him on the wind he moved further into the forest. On occasion, he thought to see a shadow rush through the forest around him, but he could never be certain that it hadn’t just been his mind playing tricks on him.

You were bound to eventually see stuff you were looking for, even if it was purely imagination.

Kent didn’t have a choice though. All he could hope for was that the road would be primarily straight and try to move as straight as possible.

“Boy, you shouldn’t be here. I told you already. Go left,” Gerof’s voice shocked Kent. Hadn’t he been as tired and worn down after several hours of running he might have reached for his newly acquired knife. All he could do know was to keep himself from falling over.

“But I won’t survive further away from people. I have nothing Gerof!” Kent responded wheezing, hands on his knees.

With a stern tone, Gerof informed him of what the encompassing structure of the refugee’s plan was. Worry and sadness sometimes crept into his tone, occasionally but the man moved on, giving Kent a few hints concerning behavior in the towns of the surrounding area while he watched over Kent recharging his wrought-out body.

“I’ll try to make sure that I’m the sole scout on this side of the road. I can go a couple of nights without sleep. But you need to hurry up. We’re gonna keep the same pace tomorrow and you barely got ahead of us. I’ll wake you before we leave just once,” he said after finishing Kent’s briefing on the rough situation of what went down.

“You need to get further away tonight. If you attract a monster, they might hear you struggle. I’ll try to keep watch on you as well, but I can’t promise anything.

With that the man left, leaving Kent with all his belongings, and a small green candy. The solii would go at least a bit in returning him to his prime. He chewed the bitter bonbon all the while keeping his eyes on the fast regenerating stamina bar.

Kent had barely regained his composure and the knowledge that he would only get some rest tonight wasn’t comforting in the least. Frustration on the rise he struck out again, deciding that heeding the man’s advice would be for the best, if all went well the fresh spawns in the region would be drawn by the smell of people instead of a lowly traitless person.

Wearily he moved on, knowing full well that it would be potentially fatal to exert himself too much. But he had no choice in his mind.

That was until he heard the tell-tale scuttling of a drop-pig.

“Ahh shit,” he grumbled.